Just when we thought it safe to play on psn....

[Agent D.]

Apparentley, anonymous is pissed at sony again....

http://playstationlifestyle.net/2011/12/29/anonymous-to-destroy-sonys-online-network-for-sopa-support/

Honestly, i'm at a loss. SOPA sounds good on paper, but the millions of retards who don't understand actual piracy and copyright laws will go on the offensive and throw banhammers at everything. Plus, what happens with user generated content like youtube or hulu, where a dumbass puts up parts of a video or something similar that's copyrighted material? Does the site get banned for it? Do we lose amazing stuff for general dumbassery? Not even getting into how anonymous decided they are gonna defend our interests again by attacking a company who defends the stopping of piracy. Hundreds of angry nerds won't be able to torrent whole seasons of crappy anime. STOP THE PRESSES GUYS, SHIT JUST GOT REAL!

Thoughts, input, discuss?

[Kevadu]

SOPA sounds good on paper

Say what?  Have you read SOPA?  There's nothing remotely good about it.  And I'm saying that as somebody who doesn't pirate and despises pirates.

That said, singling out Sony here is somewhat...bizarre.  A lot of companies have expressed support for SOPA.  Sony isn't even the main proponent or anything.

[Ashtrot]

SOPA is the latest step on a road where the term 'corporate government' is becoming more and more of a reality.

SOPA must die.

[Annubis]

Most companies who express support for SOPA are:
- A) Tiny
- B) Religious (see A)
- C) False companies (whore your company name for $$$ and make the list longer)
- D) Internet related
- E) Big corporate

A, B and C aren't even worth doing anything to
D are losing customers every week because of their support to SOPA (see the GoDaddy fiasco)
E are just... not losing anything.

So, in a sense, Anonymous is targeting the most valid target.

[Agent D.]

I haven't read it yet, but SOPA sounds like everything else the US government creates. Great idea, terrible execution. Just look at the judicial system for starters. I guess I'm a bit naive though, looking at it like that. Either the big corporations win, or the assholes win. Middle class eats it in the end either way. Wewt for me.

[Eusis]

The impression I get from SOPA is that it does the equivalent of giving store clerks (or at least managers) the right to SHOOT anyone that tries to steal anything, or seems like they might be stealing something. Something has to be done, but do you really want them to be the ones who get to have that power?

[Tooker]

Basically, if a company decides that a website has something that violates their copyright for any reason, SOPA would allow them to shut down the website and put the owners of the site in jail.  Regardless of whether the site's owner had any control over that content. 

So when MacGuyver posts a picture of something he built based on a character from D&D, if the copyright owners of D&D decided that his doing so violated their copyright, RPGFan's owner (and staff?  I'm not clear on that) would be held criminally liable, prosecuted, and potentially jailed for years.

Obviously, that is stupid.  And as I understand it, it's not even remotely the goal of SOPA.  They really just want to stop piracy, particularly from sites based in other countries.  But they did a crappy job of writing the bill, so it's way, way too vague.  That's how it sets up scenarios like my example above.

[Dade]

SOPA wouldn't have to happen if the quality of "intellectual property" wasnt so shitty.

Stop making shit that people dont think is worth their money, but they really want anyway. If people truly like a product/movie/game/song/beastialityvideowhat? they WILL pay for it.

Simple as that.

Anon is just posturing, though.

[John]

SOPA wouldn't have to happen if the quality of "intellectual property" wasnt so shitty.

Stop making shit that people dont think is worth their money, but they really want anyway. If people truly like a product/movie/game/song/beastialityvideowhat? they WILL pay for it.

Simple as that.

I wish that were true.  I truly do.  But look at The Witcher 2.  Fantastic game, pirated by millions.  Doesn't matter the quality of the product - piracy is going to happen either way.

[Ashtrot]

The most revolting thing about SOPA is that from what I've read about it, it affects the world, not just the U.S. It's fucking disgusting that U.S. representatives thinks they have the right to legislate and censor something that affects the entire world.

[Eusis]

SOPA wouldn't have to happen if the quality of "intellectual property" wasnt so shitty.

Stop making shit that people dont think is worth their money, but they really want anyway. If people truly like a product/movie/game/song/beastialityvideowhat? they WILL pay for it.

Simple as that.

I wish that were true.  I truly do.  But look at The Witcher 2.  Fantastic game, pirated by millions.  Doesn't matter the quality of the product - piracy is going to happen either way.

There are of course the murkier questions of how many seriously play the games, did it only to test, bought the game afterwards (or ALREADY owned it), or if they even installed it. Still, there's enough assholes that'll go and pirate games just to save money, plus you don't want a mindset cultivated of just downloading everything you can to be cheap.

[Aurian]

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-largest-game-companies-in-the-world-have-dropped-their-support-for-a-bill-the-internet-hates-2011-12

Looks like Sony is caving in.

[MeshGearFox]

The real problem with piracy is this:

If you spend money on a game/CD/movie, you will feel somewhat obligated to give it a fair shake, because you, well, paid for it and want to get your money's worth.

That's not going to be there if you didn't buy it.

So people that pirate things tend to gravitate towards games that are immediately gratifying, and frequently targeting the lowest common denominator. Anything that take a bit to "open up" largely get ignored in this situation.

[Annubis]

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-largest-game-companies-in-the-world-have-dropped-their-support-for-a-bill-the-internet-hates-2011-12

Looks like Sony is caving in.

http://www.destructoid.com/ea-nintendo-sony-reduce-sopa-support-by-50--218742.phtml

Yes and no.

[Dice]

SOPA wouldn't have to happen if the quality of "intellectual property" wasnt so shitty.

Stop making shit that people dont think is worth their money, but they really want anyway. If people truly like a product/movie/game/song/beastialityvideowhat? they WILL pay for it.

Simple as that.

I wish that were true.  I truly do.  But look at The Witcher 2.  Fantastic game, pirated by millions.  Doesn't matter the quality of the product - piracy is going to happen either way.

There are of course the murkier questions of how many seriously play the games, did it only to test, bought the game afterwards (or ALREADY owned it), or if they even installed it. Still, there's enough assholes that'll go and pirate games just to save money, plus you don't want a mindset cultivated of just downloading everything you can to be cheap.

I always argued a fair price, a cheap price more like, would justify to more legitimate downloading of productrs.  I wish digital downloading was more mainstreamed.  It's kinda of in an awkward puberty phase right now.